Take them seriously
These aren't graded and don't go on a transcript, but they decide whether you start in calculus or precalculus, in second-year Spanish or first. Review beforehand with the free practice materials — a rusty afternoon can cost you a semester of prerequisites. Test in a quiet place with the time it needs.
Credit and exemptions
AP, IB, CLEP, dual-enrollment, or transfer credit can exempt you from a test or a whole sequence — make sure those scores and transcripts are on file first so you're not testing into something you already have credit for.
In and around Porter Falls
Curriculum decisions at Porter run through the departments that meet in Founders Hall and the Applied Arts Building, then to Faculty Senate, then to the Provost in Millwright Hall. The pace is deliberately slow and the review calendar is published.
The practical details
Common tests: Math, and (for continuing a language) world languages; some programs add chemistry or writing. When: Over the summer before your first term, online with a proctoring step, before orientation registration. Effect: Your score determines the first course you can register for in that sequence — too low a placement adds a term or more. Anything time-sensitive — an accommodation, a booking, a deadline — is worth confirming directly before you rely on it, because the specifics here can change from term to term.
If you have a question
The office behind this is Office of the Provost (Millwright Hall, Room 300). Call (715) 555–0130 or email provost@uwporterfalls.edu during the fall and spring terms, or sign in to MyPorter to send a message or book a time. If it turns out another office owns the question, they will route it rather than send you back to the start.
Fictional information
UW–Porter Falls is a work of parody. Every office, person, building, phone number and statistic on this page is invented; nothing here describes a real institution or a service you can actually contact.